12/03/1923 - New York, NY - 71st Regiment Armory
Renato Gardini (18:00) Yussif Hussane
Marin Plestina (18:10) Hans Steinke
Wladek Zbyszko (1:09:50) Dick Schikat

(New York Herald, December 4, 1923)

Wladek Zbyszko, the Polish heavyweight champion, defeated Richard Schikat, massive German wrestler, who recently came to this country with high hopes of winning the world's championship, last night at the Seventy-First Regiment Armory, Park Avenue at Thirty-fourth Street. The end came after 1 hour, 9 minutes and 50 seconds of hard and even wrestling, when Zbyszko brought his man to the mat with a toe-hold. A crowd of several thousand fans watched the main bout and the two preliminaries, in which Marin Plestina defeated Hans Steinke, another German giant, in 18 minutes and 10 seconds with a head lock and barlock, and Renato Gardini, Italian heavyweight, threw Yussif Hussane with a headlock in 18 minutes.

In the main bout it was announced that Schikat weighed 215 pounds, while Zbyszko tipped the scales at three pounds more. The German aspirant for titular honors proved a great surprise to the gallery and won many friends by his speed, skill, strength and ability to balk Zbyszko and wriggle out of the latter's most dangerous holds.

The German has been essentially a Graeco-Roman wrestler and was quite unfamiliar with the catch-as-catch-can style of grappling until he came to this country a few weeks ago. For that reason his cleverness and his ability to hold off the veteran Polish star was quite unexpected. Schikat proved dangerous from the very start and gave Zbyszko many anxious moments, while he surprised the latter time after time by the ease with which he tossed the Pole about.

For more than an hour the men wrestled with little advantage to either contestant. The end came when both men seemed comparatively fresh. After working out of an armlock, Zbyszko manoeuvred until he gained a toe hold in the centre of the ring. The German threw all his strength into an effort to break the hold and gradually worked himself and his opponent to the north ropes.

It was a crushing grip that Zbyszko held and he exerted every ounce of his strength in an effort to terminate the match quickly. Schikat managed to get under the ropes and Referee Roeber called the men to the middle of the ring. So terrific had been the pressure exerted by the Pole that he could not bear his weight on his left leg. He was counted out and the bout awarded to Zbyszko.